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Monday, 14 October 2013

The time is right for Manchester United to sell disruptive Rooney

The time is right for Manchester United to sell disruptive Rooney

Oct 14, 2013 9:30:00 AM

The England striker is still keen on an Old
Trafford exit, while Gareth Bale is playing catch-up in Madrid and Roy
Hodgson faces a defining night on Tuesday

COMMENTBy Greg StobartSir Alex Ferguson used to follow the simple rule that no player is ever bigger than the club - and Manchester United should take their former boss' lead as the next Wayne Rooney saga threatens to unfold.

Rooney has been in outstanding form this season but how much longer can he be allowed to take United for a ride?

Ed
Woodward and David Moyes made their point in the summer by refusing to
sell the 27-year-old to Chelsea but now they must start planning for the
star's departure.

WAYNE STORM

ROONEY'S SEASON SO FAR

GAMES PLAYEDGOALSASSISTS

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Rooney has already sought a move away from Old Trafford twice and, by
refusing to even talk about a new deal, is backing United into a corner.

In the long term, they would be better off without him and the increasingly disruptive
influence of his agent, Paul Stretford, a former vacuum cleaner
salesman whose relationship with United is strained, to say the least.

Rooney is eager for a new challenge at an established Champions League
club and his ego requires that he is afforded the status of the team's
principal centre forward, having played second fiddle to Robin van
Persie since the Dutchman's arrival in 2012.

Stretford, for his
part, wants his own payday and Jose Mourinho strongly suggested that the
agent had been in touch with Chelsea over the summer to encourage the
Londoners to bid for his client.

Rooney has scored five goals in
seven appearances this season and his outstanding form prompted United's
attempts to engage in contract talks, with 18 months left on his
£250,000-a-week (€295,000) deal, but they should now stop indulging both
Rooney and Stretford and move on. Roy Keane, David Beckham, Cristiano
Ronaldo and many others have left United in the past and the Premier League titles kept rolling in.

Whether it is in January or next summer, United will be better off without Rooney and his baggage.

Ferguson
was fed up of the forward's lack of professionalism and believed that
the former Everton man only had a couple of years left at the top, in
any case.

The Scot made his fare share of big calls during 26
years in charge at Old Trafford and very few were wrong. United should
follow his example, forget about offering Rooney a new contract and cut
their losses as soon as possible.

BALE PLAYING CATCH-UP AT MADRID

Gareth
Bale took a leaf out of Luka Modric's book in the summer by refusing to
take part in Tottenham's pre-season in order to force through a
transfer to Real Madrid.

Like the Croatia international, the
24-year-old got his wish but the consequence is that he has been
unprepared for the season, playing just 132 minutes of action so far for
his new club and struggling with thigh and chronic back injuries.

Modric,
too, effectively went on strike to force his move to Madrid in 2012
and, by the end of the year, was being voted the worst signing of the
year by Spanish football fans.

The 28-year-old playmaker has
subsequently settled at the Santiago Bernabeu and become a regular
starter for the club, but the enormity of Bale's price tag means that he
may not be afforded the same patience by supporters.

The
Welshman's lack of pre-season means that he has been playing catch-up
from the minute that he pulled on a Madrid shirt, when he was rushed
into his goalscoring debut against Villarreal in September.

Los Blancos released a statement in response to reports in Marca
about the forward's back troubles, denying that he could require
surgery, but the fact that they are already being so defensive about the
Galactico signing highlights the fact that Bale is playing catch-up - both in terms of his fitness and his public relations perception.HODGSON FACES CRUNCH QUALIFIER

The
warnings to Roy Hodgson have been fired from multiple angles in the
last week or so, but most pertinent would be the words of former England
manager Graham Taylor.

When England failed, 20 years ago, to reach World Cup 1994, Taylor was
vilified, a good guy plastered across the newspapers as a turnip, his
reputation in tatters and his life changed forever.

"If England
win it's thanks to the players; if they don't it's the manager's fault,"
reflected Taylor last week. "I knew that so there was nothing for me to
do but take responsibility and resign. If he doesn't qualify, Roy will
have to handle a lot of stuff coming in his direction. What I
experienced taught me a lot about life and human nature."

As
England prepare for their must-win final World Cup qualifier against
Poland at Wembley on Tuesday, Hodgson's own future is on the line. His
job and his reputation now rest on this one game.

It has been a
long slog of a campaign, stretching from Chisinau to Podgorica to Warsaw
and it took until the penultimate game - Friday's thumping 4-1 win over
Montenegro - for England to produce a performance of any note and to
beat a team of any quality.

Yet they are nearly over the line and
will surely finish the job if they can produce a performance of similar
cohesiveness, balance and attacking ambition in front of 90,000 people -
including the best part of 20,000 Poles - at Wembley.

For once,
the English public seem to have found the happy medium between despair
and wild optimism when it comes to the national side.

England are
comfortably good enough to play at the World Cup; they are far from
good enough to win it. The new FA chairman, Greg Dyke, has made it
evident that no-one within the governing body expect anything better
than a quarter-final exit in Brazil next summer.

But England have to be there. The consequence for Hodgson should they fail would surely be the loss of his job.

The
manager answered his critics in style with his bold, ambitious team
selection against Montenegro and Andros Townsend represents the
effervescent, fearless breed of attacking players coming through at
international level.

If the 66-year-old can get it right again,
he can forget about the Graham Taylor treatment, banish the pre-match
talk about 1973 and 1993, and re-align expectations of the England team.

EUROPEAN SUPER LEAGUE SET TO FALL FLAT

The
buzz at the Leaders in Football conference last week was all about a
potential European super league after Galatasaray chairman Unal Aysal
claimed that the concept will become a reality in the next five years.

Really,
though, this is just a pipe dream. The European Club Association will
renew its understanding with Uefa after the current memorandum expires
in 2018 - and why not?

While clubs like Galatasaray are upset
over the distribution of television money, it is 15 years too late for a
super league. The Champions League is too big and too successful to now
mess with the system.

What the clubs - and Uefa - should really
be looking at is improving the attraction and quality of the Europa
League, possibly through redistribution of Champions League cash. ---------------- goal.com